


Grape Soda

by Ianthe (PaganIanthe)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Nehi Grape Soda, Snarky Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 09:51:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5581237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaganIanthe/pseuds/Ianthe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve goes on a little rant about the lack of availability of things that he liked when he was a kid (and able to afford them).  Darcy does a bit of searching and smacks him back with sass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grape Soda

**Author's Note:**

> This was started as a themed challenge (the challenge being 'Grape Soda' - something we don't have much of in the UK), and ended up being not entirely what I had expected. We have these challenges every week over at [Bewitching Fiction](http://www.bewitching-fiction.com/). I have also been posting this as I go on my [Tumblr](http://iantheswriting.tumblr.com)

“It’s grape soda! Why’s it so difficult to get a decent grape soda round here?” Steve poured the rest of the bright purple drink down the drain, crushed the can until it was almost as flat as a dime, and dropped it in the recycle bin.

“Okay, Grumpy. What did that can do to you?” Darcy walked around the kitchen counter and stroked a finger along the tense line of Steve’s shoulders, grinning when he shivered at her touch before he shook it off and went back to glaring glumly straight ahead.

“Sorry, Miss Lewis,” he mumbled, not looking up. “Just having a moment.”

“Don’t worry about it, Cap. I totally get it. Everyone has one occasionally.” She pulled a can of Dr Pepper from the fridge, popped it open and took a second to enjoy the sound of the satisfying carbonated fizz before raising the can to her lips and taking a mouthful. “Want a taste?” She held the drink out to him and smirked when he took it from her hand. She wasn’t quite so amused when he finished it in a few quick gulps - though the sight of his Adam’s apple moving as he swallowed was an enticing view, she wanted to lick her way up the line of his throat and suck on it until he moaned!

“Still not as good as _Nehi_ ,” he told her as he efficiently squashed the can and then threw it into the trash across the room, smiling when it hit the rim before falling in.

“You do know that _Nehi_ no longer exists, right?” She asked as she jumped up onto the barstool next to him and used a finger to pull the bowl of chips across the counter. “What’s so great about _Nehi_ anyway?” She stuffed a small handful of chips into her mouth and then picked up her purse and rooted through it until she found her cellphone.

“It’s just another thing that’s no longer the same,” he knew he sounded rather pathetic, but with everything that had happened over the last couple of years he found even the tiniest change made him even more homesick. Something as simple as a lack of soda was enough to send him into a morose mood when he didn’t have something else to focus on. “I guess I’ll head to the gym.”

Darcy felt a little disappointed as she watched Steve head out of the kitchen, his head down so that he was more studying his feet as they moved across the floor than actually looking where he was going. She looked at her phone for a moment, contemplating her options, then tugged the larger notebook out of her purse and switched it on, quickly hooking up to the WiFi that worked better in Stark’s tower than anywhere else she’d ever visited in her entire life!  
  


* * *

 

Darcy was sitting in the lab waiting for Jane to pass her more of the numbers one of the machines appeared to spew out with unnerving frequency. “You’re looking very pensive over there, Darce. Everything okay?” Darcy was startled out of her daze by Jane’s question.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Everything’s great.” She tapped a few keys on her keyboard in a distracted manner. “Jane, do you ever wonder how things would’ve been different if we hadn’t ended up in all that madness in New Mexico?”

Jane picked her cooling cup of coffee up from the edge of Darcy’s desk and took a sip before slumping down into her chair. “Of course. Logic dictates that a person analyse all the options. Thor being gone for two years gave me a lot of time to think about the alternatives; what could have happened.” She studied Darcy over the top of her mug as she took another sip, barely holding back the grimace as the cold drink filled her mouth. “So, what’s up?”

“Nothing really,” Darcy shrugged. “Just thinking.” She locked her screen and stood up. “Okay there is no way that coffee tastes good anymore, so I’m going down to get more.” She took the mug from Jane’s hand, picked up her own, and headed to the door. “Be back in ten, boss lady.”

Jane rolled her eyes at Darcy’s parting shot before turning her attention back to the beeping machine in the far corner of the lab.

The communal kitchen was, unsurprisingly, empty when Darcy pushed the doors open and headed straight over to the super-powered behemoth she lovingly called her dream man. She had fallen in love with the coffee machine following Jane’s first science binge just two weeks after they’d moved into the tower. Stroking her hand down the side of the streak-free steel, she placed the two large mugs underneath the spout, pressed a combination of buttons for her favourite macchiato and then stood back to wait.

She was watching as each dark droplet dripped into the mug when the doors behind her opened quietly and someone walked into the room. “Oh, I didn’t think that anyone else would be here now…” she said quickly, as she turned around. “Captain,” she followed up with, formally when she saw who it was.

“Miss Lewis,” Steve replied, with a small nod in her direction as he walked over to the fridge, pulled the doors open and started to look through it rather noisily.

“Did you know that it’s still possible to get _Nehi_ in a few places?” Darcy asked as she picked up the two steaming mugs of coffee and walked over to the door. “The internet’s a crazy place full of whackjobs and crazies, but occasionally you can find out some real interesting stuff.”  
  


* * *

 

Darcy was watching the musical episode of Buffy in the media room, singing along to ‘Rest in Peace’ with James Marsters and throwing popcorn in her mouth when she realised that she was no longer alone. She swallowed and fought back the desire to blush when she realised that her audience was looking very amused at her antics.

“Laugh it up, Spangles,” she told him, throwing a handful of buttery popcorn at his head. “I’ve seen the Liberty Bond commercials!”

“Is this something else you’ve found on the internet?” he asked her as he walked across the room and sat down on the couch.

“The internet is a wild place of wonder, Steve! Let me show you the way.” She pressed pause on the remote, the screen flickering a little as it stopped on a shot of Spike and Buffy in an almost kiss, and opened the laptop that she always kept close to hand. “Ready for a lesson in how to navigate the World Wide Web?” She opened a fresh browser window and shuffled a little closer to him on the couch, barely holding back a chuckle when he started to move away from her, his expression clearly showing his discomfort. “I know you’ve got all these superpowers and things, Rogers, but I am sure that I never read anything about super-vision being one of them.”

He looked at her blankly for a moment and then smiled as he moved closer to study the bright screen. “I am at your mercy, Miss Lewis. Teach away!”

Darcy smothered a sigh at the thought of truly having him at her mercy; oh the things she could show him if only given the opportunity. “You have my permission to call me Darcy,” she told him, all the while fighting the urge to lean a little closer, perhaps let him see down her top!

She smelled like butter, chocolate and coconut, and Steve had been keeping his distance on purpose. “Darcy,” he tried out the name, letting his tongue curl around the syllables, hiding a smirk when he noticed the way that she shuddered a little at his experimentation; interesting! “So...where d’you want to start?”

“I’m sure you know a lot more than you’re letting on,” she told him as she typed ‘ _Nehi_ ’ and ‘soda’ into the search engine and then twisted the laptop so that Steve could check out the results. “Here, you might find this interesting.”

Taking a sip of the diet cola that Darcy handed him, Steve scrolled through the search results until he came to an article he could clearly see had recently been clicked on (he wasn’t so out of touch with the modern world that he didn’t realise what a different colour on a link meant). He clicked on the link and started to read through the article.

“Are you so desperate for a _Nehi_ that you’ll ride down to North Carolina?” she finally asked him, having moved to stand behind him as he continued to read about the little out-of-the-way diner where they still looked to be living in the 50s.

With a small smirk on his lips, Steve pushed the laptop across the couch cushions and, after grabbing Darcy firmly by one wrist, tugged her into his lap. “You think you’re being so clever don’t you…” he asked her before lowering his lips to hers and silencing her startled outcry with a surprise kiss.

Darcy thought that her insides were going to start boiling; the kiss was so much more than she had expected given the gossip that Tony had been so happy to start spreading around the tower. She closed her eyes, breathed out a little sigh and sank into Steve’s embrace, enjoying it for exactly what it was; amazing!

He pulled away for a moment and grinned down at her before stating, “I think that _Nehi_ deserves a road trip!” then returned to kissing her until she couldn’t think of anything but the subtle sweet taste of soda on his lips and the feel of his fingers as they slid up her sides to cup her breasts.

**Author's Note:**

> I am accepting Steve/Darcy prompts on my Tumblr...anything to get me writing more again.
> 
> [Ianthe](http://iantheswriting.tumblr.com/)


End file.
